Disney Making Biggest Investment in Video Games Ever With Fortnite, Epic Games Investment

Disney will be making a major investment of $1.5 billion for an equity stake in Epic Games, which is its biggest investment in video games yet. Disney and Epic Games will be collaborating to create a new entertainment universe that will allow consumers to engage with new Disney experiences. Epic Games are the creators behind the popular Fortnite game and this new collaboration will bring together Disney and Fortnite in whole new way!

This news joins other exciting headlines from The Walt Disney Company's Earnings Call like the announcement of Moana 2 and the news that Taylor Swift's Era's Tour concert film will debut on Disney+ on March 15th featuring five brand new songs never before seen in theaters or on digital. And for theme park fans, Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed key details on the Disney Parks $60 billion investment. As we wrote about in the huge news on Disney CEO Bob Iger’s “First Priority”, it's important to pay attention to all the company's investments because of how they could potentially impact the theme parks.

Keep reading for the full details on this investment along with everything you need to know about this NEW Disney Fortnite experience. My son has been active Fortnite player since the game initially released in 2017 so between my own Disney knowledge and adjacent Fortnite experience, I'm here to help Disney fans understand the HUGE implications of this news!

Disney Makes Historic Video Game Investment

The Walt Disney Company is investing $1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in Epic Games (creators of Fortnite) alongside a multiyear collaborative project with Epic Games. This is a huge investment from Disney and an impressive amount to dedicate towards video games! Disney revealed their justification for this investment alongside details of this upcoming collaboration in their most recent 2024 earnings call on Feb. 7th 2024.

Disney has been involved with the video game experience for years, many of us may even have nostalgic memories of fan favorites like Kingdom Hearts, Epic Mickey, and Disney Infinity. But Disney has also been successful with licensing their franchises. For instance, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 PS5 video game was one of the most successful video games in 2023.

According to Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, this investment was inspired by the demographic trends for Gen Z, Gen Alpha, and Millennials. The statistics he were shown indicated that these generations spend the same amount of media screen time playing video games as they do on television and movies. This information is huge to a company like Disney!

“We have to be there and we have to be there as soon as we possibly can in the most compelling way possible.” Iger said in the call as he further elaborated on their existing relationship with Epic Games. Disney has already had success with franchising their characters in Fortnite (Star Wars and Marvel have both been featured in the game) and this helped inspire the conversations with Epic Games.

Iger followed up this justification for their investment with the resulting ideas that followed, “What if we create a gigantic Disney world, a la Fortnite, that could live next to Fortnite and be completely interconnected with it.” This world would feature games that Disney has created but also give players the chance to create their own games. He further elaborated on the idea of content that players could watch whether it is the creation of short form Disney videos or Disney could use the platform to distribute existing content. And of course, the opportunity for player to player interaction and shopping. Initially shopping will likely be limited to physical goods but at some point could expand to physical items.

Fortnite has been extremely successful the past year as they revamped their gaming experience with Fortnite Chapter 5 which added new experiences to the game and did a nice job of attracting new audiences to the game while also bringing back past players that may have felt they outgrew the experience.

What Does a Disney and Fortnite Collaboration Mean?

Before we dig into the trailer, let's breakdown how Fortnite has evolved to be more than just a Battle Royale experience where players participate in live online battles. Fortnite has expanded into different player experiences beyond just the Battle Royale with separate games you access within Fortnite. Fortnite players have the option of selecting other experiences like LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival. These different experiences allow players to enter the world of LEGO, play arcade style racing games with their friends, and create music using similar mechanics to Guitar Hero. These are essentially different games that exist within the Fortnite platform.

This new Disney collaboration appears to be an expansion to this existing format that will be available alongside these other Fortnite experiences. When players access this new Disney experience, which they have dubbed Disney x Epic Games, they can “play, watch, create, shop” within this new world. It seems that players will access this Disney experience through Fortnite in the same way players now access games within Fortnite like LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Fortnite Festival.

Disney x Epic Games released a trailer packed with popular Disney properties like Frozen, Avatar, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Marvel, and more. And of course, the trailer also predominantly features the Fortnite logo showcasing the possibilities for this collaboration. You can watch the trailer below.

This is clearly more than just a one off or simple collaboration with Fortnite especially with the amount Disney has invested in Epic Games. The press release calls this a new “persistent universe” which indicates this will be a permanent experience with future opportunities for growth. This is not just going to be a limited-time Fortnite creator map but an entirely new gaming experience within the existing platform.

The creative map features different floating islands connected by a hub in the middle that resembles the Disney Castle. All the different islands appear to be connected by a monorail and we see different Marvel and Star Wars ships flying around the map. Now if we look closely, we can see some popular properties featured like Nightmare Before Christmas, Monsters Inc., Marvel, Star Wars, and Wreck It Ralph.

But interestingly, the hub in the top left corner shows icons like Disney+, ESPN, 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm, Disney Animation Studios and the Pixar ball. This might be where players can “watch” or “shop” in this new Disney x Epic Games collaboration. It will be interesting to see what is available to watch within the game. Bob Iger stated in the 2024 Q1 Earnings Call this content could be short videos developed for the platform with the potential of adding in existing content. If they create exclusive game content, this will be a great way to draw in Disney fans new to Fortnite.

As for shopping, this isn't the first time a video game platform has offered in game shopping for physical merchandise. It only makes sense for Disney to integrate their large selection of merchandise to this experience. I will be curious to see if we see any exclusive Disney & Fortnite collaborative merch offered here. We know that Disney will start with digital items, likely an expansion on the existing Fortnite Item Store, with the potential to expand to physical merchandise.

According to the trailer, this experience is where players will “discover a place where magic is epic.” This is exciting news for gamers but I think this is something that might draw in non-traditional users as well. This is a huge move from Disney to further expand their reach into video games. The appeal of “watch” and “shop” might be enough to draw new users to the platform which is a win for both Disney and Epic Games.

We've already seen Disney's knack for this as they created their own immersive gaming experience, Disney Dreamlight Valley, which offers a game style similar to the popular Animal Crossing. This game attracted a diverse range of gamers due to this similarity alone. I personally hope to see some of the immersive elements of Disney Dreamlight Valley present in this new experience.

Are More Disney Characters Coming to Fortnite?

Disney has essentially purchased a part of Epic Games through this investment and this likely means players will start to see more Disney characters and properties in the Fortnite Item Shop. The Fortnite Item Shop is where players can purchase different skins (characters for gameplay) along with different items used in the game like weapons, cars, and more.

It has already been teased that Avatar characters are coming to the Fortnite item shop but this also means players might see new characters from properties like Pixar and Disney Animation. Perhaps this will mean a Lightning McQueen car to use in the games? An Elsa skin to be used in Battle Royale?

Different Disney properties have already been present in Fortnite in the past like Star Wars and Marvel but this will likely increase the options in the future. In the trailer released to announce this collaboration, we see some of the traditional Fortnite characters holding items unique to these properties like Captain America's shield. I expect we will see an increase in Disney items in the Fortnite Item Shop in the future as a result of Disney's investment and collaboration.

When Can You Play Disney Fortnite?

We have no official date yet but the trailer said this experience will be available “soon-ish” so it is likely not far off in the future.

What do you think of this new investment from Disney? Are you interested in a Disney Fortnite experience?

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